"As the books grew bigger and more ambitious, the situations in question sometimes became political ones, and so it became necessary to start painting in the social background on a scale which eventually became panoramic"

This quote by Jonathan Coe is describing the evolution of books. As books became more complicated and in-depth, the situations they depicted typically ended up being political in nature. This indicated that authors had to provide more context and background info to their stories. This context needed to be extensive and extensive, offering a complete image of the social and political environment in which the story was set. This type of writing eventually ended up being known as 'panoramic' writing, as it supplied a complete and in-depth view of the world in which the story was set.